BLOG

Recently in Katz on the Cats Category

With the
season complete and with some much-needed momentum heading into the offseason,
I've put together a two-part list of who will return to UC next season and what
needs to happen in order for the Bearcats to complete their comeback by earning
a berth to the NCAA tournament. I'll break it down player by player and I'll
look into the future to see where this team will stand next year.

Here we
go:

Mick
Cronin: Let's start with the man most responsible for the turnaround and also the
man with the most to lose. Cronin will enter his fifth year at UC next season,
and let's just get this out in front: if he doesn't make the NCAA tournament,
the heat he feels next year will be like nothing he encountered this season. If
he falls short again, I think his job will be in jeopardy.

Cronin, I
think, has done a phenomenal job getting this team, which had only one
scholarship player returning when he picked up the pieces left by the destruction
of the Bob Huggins era, from the cellar of the Big East to the middle of the
pack. Yes, the Bearcats' conference record was 7-11, and yes, people are
probably tired of Cronin referring to his team as young and that the Bearcats
were close to winning so many games if only they had gotten some breaks.

But look
at his win total: it's increased every season. Look at some of the teams UC has
beaten: top-25 non-conference opponents and top-of-the-line Big East foes. At
the very least, Cronin has brought UC back to the point of respectability. Now,
I understand that's not enough for most fans, and yeah, I can agree with that.
People don't want respectability; they want their teams to compete for
conference titles. I think Cronin can take this program even higher, but it
needs to be next year. Otherwise, all bets are off.

Senior
class

Rashad
Bishop: The first question obviously is this: will he be back? I'm not sure,
and for now, Cronin isn't talking. I'm guessing he'll return (he was spotted
hanging outside the team locker room following its NIT games), but if not, UC
didn't seem to miss a beat without him. What Bishop brings to this team is his
perimeter defense and the ability to hit an occasional 3-pointer. But if he's a
distraction, perhaps his attributes aren't worth it.

Bishop,
out of anybody in this junior class, has been the most consistent on the court,
and although Bishop doesn't strike me as a typical senior leader - not in the
same way that Deonta Vaughn tried to be this year - he would be instrumental to
next year's team. He's just kind of there in the background, usually playing good
defense and occasionally making an impact on offense. You don't base your team on
him, but he's usually pretty good to keep around.

Larry
Davis: What happened to Davis
this year? He went from a player who was 15th in the Big East with a
37.9 3-point field goal percentage in conference-only games to a guy who
couldn't make a shot if his team's life depended on it. At times, in fact, you
wondered why Davis
was even on the court. It's a fair question, considering he made only 2 of his
final 22 three-point attempts in the last nine games. Cronin obviously had a
long leash on him, but Davis
needs to improve his shooting. Otherwise, I have to wonder if he'll have any
kind of impact on the squad next year.

Ibrahima
Thomas: He really seemed to hit his stride in the final few games of the
season, and he showed some of the potential Cronin talked about last year as
Thomas waited out his transfer season. He showed his rebounding ability, he
showed he could shoot the ball a bit, and he showed he can bring a certain energy
to the team. He only has one year of eligibility remaining, but I think he'll
have a strong season next year. He might not be a star, but he'll be a solid
starter for this squad.

Darnell
Wilks: He was the player most helped by Bishop's absence. In the final five
games of the season, he averaged 20.6 minutes and 6.8 points. This, after
playing a total of 21 minutes the seven games before that. His athleticism
can't be denied, and his dunking ability can be jaw-dropping. But the team will
need more than that next year from Wilks. He showed he can be a strong
contributor. Can he be more than that? If Bishop isn't around, he might need to
be.

Anthony
McClain: Maybe without Steve Toyloy around any more, McClain will have a chance
to earn more playing time (he averaged 4.2 minutes per game this year). But at
this point, we pretty much know what McClain is capable of giving this team. A
little bit of rebounding against teams that aren't quite as big, and a guy who
can make a layup if the ball caroms to him. Other than that, I'm not sure what
else Cronin can get from him.

Well, the
season is over. And for many, that's quite a relief. Though some people I
talked to after the game said the team lost all the goodwill it's built up the
past few weeks with a subpar performance against Dayton, I disagree.

By
winning three of their final five games, I think the Bearcats will go into the
offseason with some momentum and a sense of what they'll need to accomplish
next year to make the NCAA tournament.

Said Mick
Cronin, reflecting on his squad's season: "We continued to progress. We really
relied on a lot of young players with the freshmen and Yancy. A lot of close
calls. It's tough when you're so close in building a program where we had to
build it from, but we've improved it every year. But getting close is not where
we want to be. That's the frustrating part. If you're me, you have to stay
focused on the positive. At times, we were close to getting over the hump, but
we didn't, and that's were the frustration comes in.For the most part (in the past few weeks), we
put our egos in our pocket and tried to scrap together and do what we had to do
to get wins."

The sad
aspect of tonight's game was that UC, once again, underestimated its opponent.
As Cronin said, the Bearcats didn't start respecting the Flyers until they were
losing by 15.

"Kids are
funny," Cronin said "They were preseason top 25. They had Xavier beat until
they had a technical foul in the A-10 tournament and they beat them by 30 two
weeks before that, and that's a team that's in the Sweet 16. Guys don't know Dayton. That's part of
it."

"They
made a lot of shots early. You expend a lot of energy coming back. When you're
trying to get over the hump and it's such a large number to come back from,
fatigue comes into play. You cut it to one, and you run out of gas. What lesson
did we learn? Lance just said it. We have to take people more seriously. As a
unit, we have to come back next year with the mentality of a team that shows up
every night with our defense and our preparation and be mature enough to
understand that anybody can beat you."

--Senior
guard Deonta Vaughn, who passed Danny Fortson for third place on the all-time
scoring list tonight, was touched by the standing ovation he received from the
crowd when he left the 5/3 floor for the final time.

"My four
years have been great," Vaughn said. "All four years, I learned a lot about
basketball. I matured a lot. I did a lot of great things to get this program
back to where we needed it to be. I just like the program and where it's headed
in the future. It started with me, (Marcus) Sikes, John (Williamson), Jamual (Warren), and everybody
else. I get calls from them, because they still love the program. What we did
was help rebuild the program."

I asked
him if he felt that people recognized him for that.

"I feel
like a lot of people recognized that," he said. "I get a lot of Facebook
messages from fans that know me, telling me that. It's still good to know that
a lot of people recognize that, people that aren't even from Cincinnati that tell me I had a great career.
Even from some of the other coaches. It's great to have recognition like that."

--Mick
said freshman point guard Jaquon Parker hyper extended his knee but didn't do
any ligament damage. The team felt his absence tonight, though.

--Stephenson
said once again after the game that his plan is to return to UC for his
sophomore season. I guess you can't really count on that until he's there in
October for the beginning of practice, but he was pretty believable.

We were just talking about how pumped that this contest was slated for 9 p.m. It's especially good for the newspaper people. But I digress.

Interested to see how this game turns out, especially because Mick has talked in the past about how his team would fare in the Atlantic 10 or how the top teams in the A-10 would fare in the Big East. Well, his squad gets to test itself against a team that finished seventh in the A-10.

For what it's worth, Dayton gets a bigger ovation from the crowd than UC initially. Bearcats fans step up their game for Bearcats starting lineups.

Big dunk by Chris Wright. He is pretty talented.

Jaquon Parker still doing a nice job on the offensive glass.

Gates not having a good night so far. He takes an ill-advised 3-pointer and then he picks up his second foul heading into the official timeout.

Dayton 9, UC 5 (15:53 to go)

UC taking bad 3-pointers; Dayton getting open 3s and nailing them. Paul Williams and Mickey Perry hit back-to-back triples to open an eight-point lead. Cronin has to call a timeout.

Dayton 15, UC 10 (11:47 to go)

Dayton hits yet another 3 to make it a 10-point game, but Parker counters with a 3 of his own.

Stephenson goes 1 on 4, makes a sweet finger roll and gets called for the offensive foul. The people aren't happy about it.

A few minutes later, Stephenson runs into a pick and roll and appears to hurt his ankle. He had to be helped off the court, and he didn't put his right foot to the ground.

Rob Lowery hits another trey, and Dayton is administering a butt-kicking. Leading by 14 and Cronin has to call another timeout.

Parker called for traveling, and now, he's in on the ground and in some pain. Dave Fluker is working on his left knee.

Dayton 31, UC 17 (7:27 to go)

Stephenson is back to the floor. He stands outside the UC huddle.

Jaquon Parker, according to my man Antonio Mazzaro who can see him, is under the stands, working on a stationary bike. And laboring.

Dayton, I've got to say, has looked awfully impressive.

Dayton 38, UC 23 (3:45 to go)

According to Antonio, Parker has gone to the locker room.

Keyed by two 3s by Vaughn and some strong Bearcats defense, UC is making a run at the end of the half.

London Warren with the hard foul on Stephenson. After watching the reviews, the officials are going to call that an intentional foul. I don't agree. I think Warren went for the block and just got him in the face. I don't like the intentional foul call at all.

Vaughn takes both free throws and hits them both. UC will get the ball. Stephenson is out of the game again.

Great job by the Bearcats to go on a 15-5 run to end the half and cut the lead to five.

Vaughn leads the way with 16 points. UC is shooting 34.5 percent from the floor and 29.4 percent from the 3. Dayton is 51.6 and 50, respectively.

Dayton 41, UC 36 (half)

Stephenson looks OK. He starts off the second half with a three-point play.

Ref almost tees up Cashmere Wright after he complains about another foul call. The ref had already formed the T and was about three inches away from putting his hands together.

The game has gone crazy.

Dayton 46, UC 43 (15:25 to go)

Dayton, so far, making just enough plays to keep UC at bay.

Gates with two points and three rebounds with 12:15 to go. I'm sure Cronin expected more.

Dayton 52, UC 47 (11:37 to go)

I'm sure the zone defense UC is playing was supposed to prevent Devin Searcy from throwing down that nasty slam.

And with those free throws, Vaughn surpasses his season high of 20 points.

Dayton 59, UC 53 (7:43 to go)

If it wasn't for Deonta Vaughn, UC would be down by 20. Or more. If this is the end for him, a nice way to finish off his career. Except for the loss, of course.

UC has made one field goal in the last 7 1/2 minutes.

Dayton 65, UC 55 (3:37 to go)

Well, Vaughn is giving it a good run, but he's not getting much help from anybody else.

The "We are UD" chants begin with 1:04 to play.

Before he's taken out with about 30 seconds to go, Deonta Vaughn gets some love from some of the Dayton players. Nice standing ovation from the crowd left. Hugs from London Warren and Mick Cronin. And then everybody else on the bench. Even one of the refs shakes his hand.

Sometimes,
junior quarterback Zach Collaros feels like the first-team quarterback. Like when
he's taking those first-team snaps or when he's thinking back to his
performance last season when he replaced an injured Tony Pike or when he's
thinking ahead to the possibilities of next season.

But, in a
flash, those thoughts filter away. Unlike Pike, who was entered last spring
knowing he'd be the starting quarterback for the 2009 season, Collaros isn't
assured of anything. Yes, his name is at the top of the depth chart right now.
But that doesn't mean it will stay that way.

"We've
talked about building our intensity each and every day," coach Butch Jones
said. "Competition is great. Every day, they're going to have to compete. We
compete in everything we do - in the classroom, in the community and on the
field. The quarterback situation isn't any different.

"We
probably won't know who the starter is until a week before our first game. Does
(Collaros) have an advantage? Yeah, he has an advantage because he's played and
he's done some things. But FresnoState doesn't care who
made the plays last year. I like the quarterbacks' mentality. I see a great
competition, but I also see them helping each other."

Going by
last year's performances, Collaros would be the easiest pick to replace Pike.
After all, he took over for Pike in the middle of the South
Florida game and ran for a 75-yard touchdown and finished the game
with 194 total yards while leading the Bearcats to the victory.

Overall,
he started four games, completing 75 percent of his passes for 1,434 yards, 10
touchdowns and two interceptions. He also finished third on the team in rushing
with 344 yards on 57 attempts (a 6.0 yards per carry average) and four
touchdowns. He showed just how dangerous he can be in a spread formation.

Meanwhile,
Chazz Anderson - who's No. 2 on the depth chart - played in just four games
last season and threw only six passes. You might remember he quarterbacked the
Rutgers win two years ago in place of Pike, but then again, that was two years
ago. After Anderson,
you've got redshirt sophomore Brendon Kay and some incoming recruits who would
like to take a crack at the starting job (Travis Kelce, you might remember, has
moved to tight end).

"I always
try to approach practice the same way, being as prepared as I can be and
working as hard as I can," Collaros said. "It's a little different getting the
first snaps. It's exciting. You feel like you're the guy. But Chazz is a great
quarterback, and we're going to be back out there battling for it."

Collaros
knows he's built a small portfolio of work. But in a new system with new
coaches watching, he also knows this: he's not going to be handed the
quarterback job just because he had some success last year.

"It's
kind of the same system with a little bit different terminology," Collaros
said. "I'm anxious to get out there and show (the coaches) what I can do.
They've seen some film, but I need to come out and perform. I never was the
starter, so I'll just come out here and work as hard as I can."

Of
course, there was plenty of over-the-top yelling and plenty of coaches
whistling and plenty of players woofing and plenty of managers screwing
everything up. Which led to even more over-the-top yelling.

This was
the first day of spring football practice, so, of course, all of this was
occurring, just like it does on every football campus about this time of year.
At UC, it happened the same way under the reigns of Mark Dantonio and Brian
Kelly. With Butch Jones, it was more of the same.

At the
same time, though, Wednesday's first of 15 spring practices was a bit
different. There was the yelling and the woofing and the cheering. But there
was also something else - there was also a little bit of sportsmanship.

Never was
that more evident than at the end of the 2 ½ hour practice than when the
players lined up and shook hands with each other before leaving the field.

"We talk
about in our football family that we want to compete in everything we do,"
Jones said. "A lot of times during practice, especially in the spring, there's
an offense vs. a defense mentality. But what they understand is once the double
horn blows and practice is over, we're one. We're the Bearcats. That's just a
very fitting way to end practice. Now we come together as one."

Said
junior defensive lineman John Hughes: "That's just showing sportsmanship after
everything we did today. We're showing that we still love each other. These
coaches care a lot about team chemistry and how everybody gets along with each
other. That makes it more of our team. These coaches are a lot more in tune
with the brotherhood of the family."

The end
of practice handshake line wasn't the only aspect of the practice that was a
little different than what we've seen before. Music played over the loud
speakers during warm-ups, and Jones chest-bumped players before chiding the
managers for not spotting the ball correctly (though he apparently was a little
less brutal with them than Kelly might have been; Kelly, after all, could curse
you out with the best of them). And for some reason, and I'm sorry I forgot to
ask for an explanation, there were two ladders in the middle of the field where
the quarterbacks were throwing (my best guess was that maybe the ladders were
acting as really, really tall defensive linemen).

Bill Koch
had an even better line.

"Maybe,"
he said, "after practice, they're going to do some painting."

Either
way, the mentality at practice was just slightly different.

"The
intensity is a lot higher in everything we're doing," junior quarterback Zach
Collaros said. "Even coach Jones is running around here chest-bumping before
practice. We go a little bit longer. The receivers, when they catch the ball, everybody
has to get to the ball, even the other receivers to get a block down field.
It's just real high intensity."

Jones knows
these players know how to be successful. Now, he has to mold them into the
mindset that he wants to see from them.

"I like
our kids' mentality, and the mindset is they expect to win," he said. "You
wouldn't want that any other way. But we're also an extremely young football
team. We have a lot of young guys. There's some teaching for them. They're
eager, but we have to teach them what we want. But they're winners. We're not
having to come in here and try to build a mentality of how to win. They already
know how to win. They've proven that. But there are also some individuals who
have already hit a triple without coming up to bat. They have to understand the
work ethic that comes into it."

A nice
night for the Bearcats, and a really, really nice night for senior guard Deonta
Vaughn as he broke the school record for made 3-pointers (passing Darnell
Burton) and assists (passing Eddie Lee). He knew he was getting close to those
historic marks, but he didn't exactly know how far away he stood. He found out
tonight.

"It feels
good to be among the greatest at shooting threes and dishing the ball to my
teammates," said Vaughn, who finished with a team-high 16 points and seven
assists to go with five rebounds in UC's 76-62 win against WeberState.
"I knew I was chasing the record. I just never knew how far I had to go get it.
I'm glad my family didn't tell me."

Then,
during a second-half timeout, his record was announced to the crowd, and he
received a standing ovation. He tried to ignore it, but eventually, Mick Cronin
made him stand up and acknowledge the cheers.

"Coach
was trying to be funny for a little bit and get me to stand up," Vaughn said. "I
wanted to sit down and finish the first game of the NIT off right."

Before
the season, Cronin heard the rumblings that, if Vaughn had another good year,
he'd have a chance at climbing to No. 2 on the all-time scoring list. He wasn't
sure that was possible, because he knew the scoring totals were going to be
more balanced this season. But he was excited that Vaughn notched the two
records tonight.

"The
assist record is something that goes unnoticed," Cronin said. "For three years,
he shouldered the burden of scoring, and he still distributed the ball. And no
disrespect, but he was not playing with Kenyon Martin and Jason Maxiell. A lot
of guys missed some layups where, when they were playing in the Big East, they
were in over their heads."

--One
reason the Bearcats shot 93.8 percent from the foul line - intense pressure
during practice.

Cronin
runs one drill where the team, beginning with the seniors and working its way
to the freshman, has to make 21 free throws against a 5-minute running clock. If
a free throw is missed, the entire team has to run a sprint up and down the
floor as the clock continues to move. Fail to make 21, and the team has to run
six more sprints.

Up and
down the court?

"It
depends," Cronin said, "on how tired I think they are."

Before
Tuesday's practice, the Bearcats hadn't succeeded once this season. They
finally reached their goal the day before the WeberState
game.

"It's a
true test of focus and toughness," Cronin said. "The NCAA tournament teams I coached
made it all the time."

--Redshirt
freshman guard Cashmere Wright hurt his hip after falling to the court
following his made layup. Wright has a bit of a problem during practice falling
on the court - probably because his speed gets the rest of his body out of
control.

"He needs
to stop falling down," said Cronin, who also said Wright should be fine for the
second-round NIT game vs. the Flyers.

-- No
word on the when the UC-Dayton game will occur. But there's a pretty good
chance it would occur either Friday or Monday.

Remember
a week ago when UC was in the middle of a drought in which it had dropped five
of six games and was headed to the Big East tournament with zero momentum on
its side.

Who
thought the Bearcats could make any kind of run in New York? Who, at the time, thought a
postseason berth of any kind was secure? Who thought they could save their
season - and the wrath of the fans against Mick Cronin - in just three games?

Who
thought they would have been excited with an NIT selection?

Not many,
that's who. Not me, for sure. But after surviving Rutgers and, stunning Louisville and pushing West Virginia until the final second of the
game, the outlook for UC is suddenly much more positive. It's two victories
away from a 20-win season. It gets at least one more opportunity to play in
front of a home crowd. It gets to continue to try to win in the month of March.

"It's about
how to win in March and how to stay focused in March," Mick Cronin said. "We've
played very few games in March. It was good for us to stay in New York as long as we could and it will be
great to stay in this tournament as long as we can. It's good for us to go
through the process of being in the postseason."

If
anybody has impressed since the beginning of the Big East tournament, it's been
freshman forward Lance Stephenson. After a solid freshman season in which he
unanimously was voted onto the conference's all-rookie team - but still failed
to live up to the expectations that were set for him before the season -
Stephenson had big breakout games on national TV during UC's tournament run.
What was most impressive was that he, for the first time in his college career,
simply took over games.

He
recorded 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists vs. Rutgers and then followed
that with 12 points against Louisville and a 19-point, seven-rebound
performance in the West Virginia loss.

"He's
just a young player with talent finding his way," Cronin said. "They can't be
who somebody wants them to be. They have to worry about getting better every
day and giving their best effort. It's just a process they go through. Lance's
biggest growth recently has been that his rebounding has gone up and his
turnovers have gone down. That's been big. He's struggled when he's turned the
ball over. It's hard to put the ball in his hands, if he's not getting shots
off. There's no doubt he's been more aggressive lately, but it's all in the
decisions he's been making lately."

And as
for the thoughts of Deonta Vaughn, who will never play in the NCAA tournament?

"It's not
the tournament that I wanted, but what can I say?" he said. "We lost a tough
one (vs. West Virginia)
that hurt us deep down. I've never been to the NIT either. It's better than the
CBI."

--Cronin
reiterated during his Monday news conference that Rashad Bishop is still
suspended. Aside from that, he didn't have much to say about the junior forward
who averaged 8.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and provided the team with
its best perimeter defender.

To
Cronin, the squad is deep enough to withstand the loss of just one player.

"I don't
think we're that much different," Cronin said. "Our rebounding and our defense
were excellent in New York.
Those were two things he did really well. Jaquon (Parker) is capable of giving
us toughness and Ibrahima (Thomas) and Darnell (Wilks) both rebounded the ball.
They're the guys who took up most of those minutes."

--Cronin
also discussed how sophomore guard Dion Dixon is handling the aftermath of his
last-second turnover in the West Virginia game that ultimately led to the
banked-in 3-pointer by De'Sean Butler that gave the Mountaineers the win.

"He's
better," Cronin said. "It's just an unfortunate one of those things as a young
player. You can't think about one play. We missed numerous tip-ins in the game.
We missed free throws. We all had mistakes, including myself throughout the
game. You can't put the blame on one player or one play at the end of the
game."

Just got
off the conference call with Mick Cronin regarding UC's inclusion in this year's
NIT. The Bearcats will play Big Sky opponent WeberState
(20-10) Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 5/3, and Cronin said the team couldn't be happier
about it.

"We have
finals week, so playing a home game is something we were hoping for," said
Cronin, whose squad could play Dayton
in the second round. "If we can win, we'll have two home games. Just from an
academic standpoint, we're thrilled about being at home. To get a chance to
play again in front of our fans, it's something our guys will be excited about.
We had a great run in New York,
and our guys are looking forward to playing again this week."

Though on
Sunday night, he didn't know much about Weber St - he hadn't seen the Wildcats
play at all this season - Cronin knows how important a run in the NIT could be
to this team to bring some momentum into the offseason.

"Whenever
you can win games in March, it's a good habit to create for your program, starting
in the conference tournament and then in your postseason, wherever it may be,"
Cronin said. "Especially when you have
lot of young players, you're creating habits. That's creating winning habits in
March, which is what college basketball is all about. Now that we have this opportunity,
we have to make the most of it."

As for
Rashad Bishop, who was suspended for the Big East tournament because of the
violation of team rules?

Jaquon Parker gets the start at point guard. The reset of the starting lineup is predictable.

Jeez, I wonder if it will be one of those nights. Ebanks slips, falls into Gates for the foul, throws the ball over his head toward the basket sight and unseen, and gets the roll for the basket. It's a 3-point play.

Stephenson picks up his second foul just 2:57 into the game. Not a good foul.

Missed layups, offensive fouls, not a good start.

WVU 9, UC 3 (15:08 to go)

I wonder if UC will ever score a field goal in this game.

WVU 15, UC 4 (11:39 to go)

With 9:18 to play, Lance Stephenson's reverse layup was UC's first field goal. The Bearcats missed their first 10 shots.

I wonder if they're nervous with Bill Clinton in the stands.

And Vaughn hits a 3 to cut the lead to nine.

WVU 18, UC 9 (7:45 to go)

Lance Stephenson, instead of waiting until the second half, is taking over the game in the first half.

WVU 21, UC 16 (3:53 to go)

UC isn't doing much on the offensive glass, but Ibrahima Thomas' putback cut the lead to three, and then, Wilks' ridiculous dunk makes it 21-20.

UC playing a zone on defense. Not something you see every day.

UC has had four chances to take a lead. The Bearcats have not succeeded on any of them.

But Larry Davis' 3-pointer ties the game.

And little-used Jonnie West with the 3 at the buzzer to take the lead.

WVU 26, UC 23 (halftime)

That's not good. Stephenson takes a hard spill, and he takes a while to get up. He stays in the game.

UC scores its first second-half point 3:33 in on a free throw by Gates. Still no field goals this half.

Cashmere Wright has pretty much been terrible.

WVU 32, UC 25 (15:59 to go)

Man, Bill Clinton knows everything about everything, it seems. If he was asked about why Jaquon Parker should be playing more than Cashmere Wright, he could probably tell us.

Gates hits a short jumper with 12:38 to play. That's the first field goal for UC in the second half. The Bearcats missed their first seven shots.

WVU 36, UC 30 (11:27 to go)

Stephenson with the drive to the basket, and he's hurt again. Looks like he hit his head against Thomas' knee. But he's OK. He's shooting free throws.

UC is shooting 27.9 from the floor and 27.3 from the 3. Plus, WVU is barely ourebounding the Bearcats.

WVU builds the lead to nine, but a Lance Stephenson floater cuts it.

WVU 45, UC 38 (6:03 to go)

The Chuck Machock gag never gets old. ESPN points out that it's been 266 games since he's been ejected from a game.

The Bearcats showing more full-court pressure now as the game is winding down.

Vaughn's 3 with 3:31 to play cuts the lead to 47-45. Then Wilks with the ridiculous put-back to tie the game.

Huge shot by Kevin Jones.

Gates misses a layup and Vaughn then misses a 3.

WVU 49, UC 47 (1:45 to go)

Stephenson will take two free throws. He makes one.

Wow, lucky break for WVU as Ebanks scores the layup just before the shot-clock buzzer went off.

WVU 51, UC 48 (:53 to go)

Stephenson with the 3 with 42 seconds to play. Unreal shot ties the game.

WVU 51, UC 51 (0:30 to go)

Ebanks drives and airballs his layup attempt. Shotclock violation.

UC has the ball.

WVU 51, UC 51 (0:06 to go)

Dion Dixon loses the ball on the inbounds, and WVU will have the ball with 3.1 seconds to play in their half of the court. Looks like he just lost the handle on the ball. Poor guy, he looks like he's ready to vomit on the sidelines because of his mistake.

Ridiculous shot by Butler at the buzzer. A 3-pointer with Stephenson draped all over him. What a shot - banked in. Terrible way for the Bearcats to lose that game.